Norwegian farmers launch bread blockade

Published: 15 May 2012 10:46 GMT+02:00

Norwegian farmers went on strike on Tuesday morning, as they sought to keep bread off supermarket shelves by blocking entrances to mills across the country in protest against the collapse of agricultural policy negotiations at the weekend.

Starting their strike at 5am, farmers have said they intend to block deliveries of flour to the country’s four largest flour mills. These are located at Bjølsen in Oslo, Buvika in Trondheim, Skien, and Vaksdal near Bergen.

The striking farmers hope to force Norwegians to hoard bread and to keep baked goods out of stores.

“Norwegian food is not a given,” said Kjell Sølverød, head of the Telemark farmers’ union.

Along with eight other farmers, Sølverød made his way on Tuesday morning to the mill in Skien.

“We’re going to empty the stores of bread. Not to be unkind, but to highlight our grievances after the breakdown of agricultural negotiations at the weekend,” he said.

Talks collapsed after the government offered 900 million kroner ($152 million) in agricultural subsidies, way below the farmers’ demand of 2.2 billion kroner ($371 million).

One of the gang which raided the gift table at a wedding in northern Norway last Saturday became so overcome with remorse after his crime was reported that he has handed himself in to the local police.
READ

A Norwegian-led research team has developed what is likely to be the first effective vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus, that has killed more than 11,000 people in the still ongoing outbreak in West Africa.
READ

Norway's prisoners may have to make do with less porn after the country's prison authorities ruled that inmates can be denied access to titillating material if it "threatens peace, order and security".
READ

The stunning Norwegian landscape in Disney's Frozen. Photo: The Walt Disney Company

Two years after the Disney hit Frozen put Norway firmly on the tourism map, the number of Americans flocking to experience the picturesque homeland of the Snow Queen Elsa and her kooky sister Anna continues to climb.
READ

A close up of the letter Herman Andreas Brunbäck Larsen enclosed in the bottle in 2004. Photo: Facebook